Professional eGaming is an eSport : Seriously

"In a game where you have to make split second decisions in any moment, these minor hesitations can affect  your performance."
"If you have pain and weakness in your body, you won't be able to contribute as much."
"This is their job and these guys take their training just as seriously as a Kobe Bryant or a Michael Jordan."
"Their eye-hand coordination starts to deteriorate by the time they're 25. The 18-year-olds have already been playing for ten years and they're quicker than the older players."
"It's hard to continue to complete past their mid-20s and there's just not that many spots open."
Dr. Todd Sontag, physician, Orlando Health

"The average esport athlete conducts more than 400 movements per minute using a mouse or keyboard [according to the New York Institute of Technology's Center for eSports Medicine, providing esport athletes with services such as] body composition testing, nutritional guidance [and] customized chair-sizing."
"The use of drugs like Ritalin and the excessive intake of caffeine or other stimulants provides additional sources of concern."
Center for eSports Medicine, New York Institute of Technology 

Dr. Levi Harrison, an orthopedic surgeon based in Los Angeles, is one of the first medical professionals to focus practise on esports-related injuries. His YouTube channel with its 67,000 subscribers includes tutorials in detail for how gamers can maintain their fingers, wrists and forearms in good health condition. Dr. Harrison has been introduced to a condition where a player's thumb gets locked into place; the result of extended periods holding a controller: "gamers thumb".

Perhaps it is not as well known as it will in future be, that electronic sports are now big business. Elite tournaments now promise payouts of close to $25 million, according to Gamespot. Salaries are on offer rivalling and even surpassing those of many professional athletes. The video game and software company Epic Games last year announced it planned to extend $100 million in funding for prize pools to highlight Fortnite competitions for the new season. Its audience, spanning the globe is in the tens of millions.

Over 67 million people around the world play League of Legends every month, according to Riot Games. Esport teams, in recognition of all these realities has a vested interest in the health of players and the urgency of the moment. Financial payoffs are attractive, but the window for success in esport is short. A professional basketball or baseball player may extend a career into their mid-to-late-30s, while esport athletes' retirement age puts the breaks on players a full decade earlier.

These are players and teams who will never appear on a basketball court. Despite which their bodies undergo repetitive-motion stress. Though team players are in their teens and early 20s, professional gamers are continually at risk for injuries most people normally associate with middle age; such as office workers spending working days in front of a computer screen. They suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome, elbow, shoulder and neck pain, eye strain and musculoskeletal injuries such as tendinitis and back pain.


Each season's millions of dollars in prize money associated with thousands of players anxious to achieve a roster spot means that even minor injuries cause concern for the players, who keep their team doctor's contact number close at hand. The League of Legends World Championship has an audience reputed to be larger and more enthusiastic than that of the Major League World Series and the NCAA Basketball Final Four in combination.

All of which has seen the definition of 'athlete' undergo a profound change. Now, over 120 colleges in North America offer varsity esport teams. The hyper-competitive world of electronic sports ("esports") now resembles mainstream professional sports. There has been an increase in prize money even as the games become more competitive in lock step with an increase in the number of traditional physicians devoting time to esports injuries, of which there is no shortage.

The New York Institute of Technology, Center for eSports Medicine's website speaks of the sedentary nature of esports and the altered sleep routines and social interactions, impacting the well-being of players. Long exposure to bright LED lighting, social anxiety, limited physical activity and hygiene represent additional issues all of which affect the gaming community.

Photo via Riot Games